Strawberry Tart (Tarte aux Fraise)

Strawberries were on sale the other day when I went to grocery store and it was the last day of the sale. I just couldn't help picking two boxes full of ripe strawberries. Although I'm never a fan of strawberries from grocery store, I couldn't resist at that time.


I didn't have any plan to make anything really, but since these strawberries were too pretty to go to waste, I had to make use of them somehow. So here's what I made today, strawberry tart. I used pate brisee for the crust, or what we often heard of sweet short pastry, but you can also use pate sucre (or sweet cookie crust dough). I brushed the inside of the tart with melted chocolate to prevent the moisture from the cream to soak in the pastry crust and make it soggy. While you can use any fillings you can imagine (think of creme chantily, lemon/orange curd, pastry cream, etc.), I'm using cream diplomat for this tart. It is basically pastry cream that's lightened with whipped cream. This is the cream of my choice when it comest to any kinds of fruit tarts. It's not as stiff as pastry cream and not as light as whipped cream.

Strawberry Tart

For the pastry
Modified from this recipe
Enough to make two 8-in round tart shell

250g flour
pinch of kosher salt
125g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
25g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
50ml ice-cold water

• Sift the flour, salt and sugar into a large bowl.
  
• Using your fingertips or pastry cutter or better yet, food processor, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse oatmeal.
  
• Mix the egg yolk and water together and pour over the flour mixture.Gently knead until it all comes together.
  
• Divide the dough in half and flattened into a ball.
• Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 mins-1 hr.
• Remove from the fridge and roll out one dough to fit the desired tart pan.
• Put it back in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prick the dough with fork.
• Blind bake the tart shell for about 20-30 minutes (depending on the size of the pan) until golden brown.
  
• Remove from the oven and let cool.

Filling
Cream of your choice:

• 1 cup heavy cream sweetened with some sugar with or without any flavorings
• pastry cream
• creme diplomat
• lemon curd

I can't really give a recipe for my tart filling because I don't know the correct amount for the size of the tart. The cream I made yield a lot more than enough for this tart. Use any of your favorite recipe. You can even omit the filling and just stacked the strawberries drizzled with some melted chocolate. The highlight of this dessert is the bright and fresh flavor of the strawberries. The most important thing is to make sure you use ripe strawberries.

This is also my other post for the Strawberry Seduction hosted by Mike.

I also made the mini version of the tart

I was out of strawberries, so each tart only has one slice :P. I know it would be better if there are more fruits or color, but this should be just fine. This would be great for a dessert in a large party or as petit four or as a party snack.